Sunday, 5 September 2010

Britain, Britain, Britain...why are we all Outraging Public Decency?

The above Little Britain intros seemed appropriate after reading a number of stories concerning outraging public decency in the UK over the last week. Thanks to Ian for flagging up the first two stories. First off, we travel to Suffolk where the Police found themselves responding to complaints about a naked cyclist. I'm slightly confused by the report which states that the man at the centre of the case has not been cautioned or charged but the case has been passed to the CPS.

The story is truly little Britain for the complaint came about because local villagers had organised a 'speed trap' to presumably catch speeding motorists when they encountered a naked cyclist speeding past them instead. I just can't imagine that happening anywhere other than Britain for some reason.

Should you live in fear of naked cyclists speeding past you, it seems that you're not safe in Scotland either where a 17 yr old apparently"terrified" an 11 year old girl after cycling naked down a country lane. He has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register which seems a crazy over-reaction to this incident. Read that story in full here.

Both cases say much about our attitudes towards nudity and the human body. Namely, we don't like it. We also had a story this week in my neck of the woods - Sunderland. A 25 year old guy was caught wanking on two occasions on a bus and charged with outraging public decency. Interestingly, the defence (which seems appropriate and should work) is that he wasn't actually exposing himself as he was wanking through his trousers. Ah, the curious joys of English law. Whatever happens to this guy, he's been named in the local press and his address given - a public shaming which thanks to the web will haunt him every time someone Googles his name

The activity of wanking in public - on buses and trains in particular - has an enormously high profile on various 'home-made' porn sites in which people upload videos of their public masturbation antics. Many include shots of the public (oblivious) in the background. It's an aspect I need to give more thought to but I suspect these cases will further feed into the current review by the Law Commission of this offence.

In the meantime, from Britain, Britain, Britain, you may find this next song equally appropriate...